Living Room Window
by The Maniacal Marvel
Summary: After Commander Shepard destroyed the Reapers, he still has to get to Rannoch so he can build a home for his space girlfriend, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy. Follow both characters as you discover just what they do and what they go through to be together.


**Chapter 1: The Aftermath**

***Gasp***

All of a sudden, his consciousness rushes forward, jarring him awake. He tries to move but he can't. Each attempted movement straining on the hero's battle-torn body. He can only move his eyes.

The human goes into a slight panic. If he doesn't make it out of here, he'll never get to see her again. He'll never get to build the love of his life a house on her home world. _No, _he thinks, _there has to be a way to get out of this!_

He looks down to see his ash-covered body lying amidst a pile of rubble. He's surrounded by it. _Maybe that's the reason I can't move_, he thinks to himself; _or, at least part of the reason._

To his left, the broken man hears different voices. Assuming them to be a search party, he tries to yell for help. Unfortunately, his shattered ribs make every breath result in excruciating pain. His attempted call for help was more of a barely audible whisper of desperation. He tries again, to no avail.

Seeing as how his 'calls' for help weren't working, he tries again to move, hoping that the slightest budge on his part might be enough to knock over a piece of rubble and grab their attention. He tries to knock his arm into the concrete boulder to his right. He hits it, but the nudge from his broken limb did little to affect it. So he tried again, ignoring the intense pain it caused, still with little success. After attempting it another 6 times, he heard it move. It was a slight move, not enough to gather the attention of surrounding people. But it was enough to fill him with hope.

The determined human pushed on it with renewed vigor, strength, and resolve. A few more nudges knocked it over. The search party heard the ruckus and immediately rushed to the source of the noise, finding a broken, bleeding, but alive John Shepard.

"Is that…Commander Shepard? How the hell is he alive?" he heard one of the search party members say.

"It doesn't matter right now! He needs medical attention! We have to get him on the ship now!" said another.

The rest of the party nodded in agreement, and then carefully carried him on their ship and into the medical bay. The medic injected him with enough sedatives to knock out an elephant. Shepard slowly felt his pain fade away, and his consciousness slip out of existence.

* * *

><p>He dreams of memories he's made over the past few years. The friends he's made, the places they've been, and the things they've accomplished. But, most of all, he dreams of her. Tali'zorah vas Normandy. How, together, they've been through more than an Asari Matriarch.<p>

He dreamed of every moment they've spent together since he saved her from the alley on the Citadel. He dreamed of the conversations he had with her about the quarian people. Their culture, their government, their fascination with ships and technology. He dreamed of them stopping Saren together with Wrex, with her putting the finishing bullet in him.

It pained him when he got to the point of his death, knowing how much it must have hurt her. Then he dreamed of their meeting on Freedom's Progress, and how he was overcome with pure happiness. _So overcome, in fact, that I didn't even know how to act on it_, he recalled with a mild chuckle.

He thought of saving her and Kal'Reegar on Haestrom. Then the unjust trial accusing Tali of treason. He dreamed about, because of the trial and Tali's father, the two of them and Garrus fighting their way through the Alarei.

Tali's father, Rael'Zorah. Just the thought of him brought Shepard to the memory of his lifeless body lying on the floor, brutally damaged by the geth that took over.

_Shepard and Garrus walk into the next room, noticing a dead quarian lying on the ground. Looking at the pattern on the pattern on his _realk, _he notices it is strikingly similar to the pattern on Tali's. Does that mean he's Tali's…?_

"_Father!" she yells, interrupting his thoughts. She darts past him, kneeling by the dead quarian on the ground. "No." she said desperately. "No, no, no. You always had a plan. Masked life signs, or, or an onboard medical stasis program, maybe. You wouldn't… They're wrong! You wouldn't just die like this! You wouldn't leave me…"_

_She hadn't finished what she was saying when Shepard says, gently touching her shoulder, "Hey, hey. Come here."_

_She steps up from her father's body, and then runs into Shepard's embrace._

He snaps back to reality, an empty void with nothing but his memories surrounding him. He continues to live through them in chronological order. Shepard then moves on to the memory when he found out that Tali felt the same way he did. One line echoes in his head without him even needing to relive the memory.

"_What could I possibly be suggesting? I mean, a young woman gets rescued by a dashing commander who lets her join his crew then goes off to save the galaxy? How could she possibly develop any kind of interest in him?"_

That line always finds a way to make him smile. His next memory is the one when she meets him in his quarters before they infiltrate the Collector Base. That night was one of his fondest memories of her.

However, one memory kept tugging at the back of his mind:

"_Normandy, do you copy? I need an evac right now!" Shepard said, a hint of worry in his voice._

"_Taking heavy losses…" Joker says, static cutting off his words. "On our way, Commander."_

"_Come on." he said, hoisting Tali off the ground and supporting her as they half-walk, half-stumble to the Normandy. "Here, take her." he said, handing Tali to Kaidan._

"_Shepard." came Tali's metallic reply, meant to start an argument with him._

"_You gotta get out of here."_

"_I can't stay behind."_

"_Don't argue with me, Tali!"_

"_Don't leave me behind!" she tries again._

"_I need you to make it out of here alive, Tali. Get back to Rannoch." He stands closer now, gently rubbing the side of her helmet where her cheek is. "Build yourself a home."_

"_I have a home." came the weak reply, clearly on the edge of tears. He turns to leave. "Come back to me…"_

"_Go!" he said, firmness in his voice, knowing that if they don't leave now, they'll likely never have the chance to._

Outside of Shepard's void of memories, the medic is working hard to make sure Shepard comes out of this alive. He's working on fixing his ribs up when he notices something. He sees Shepard's face…crying? Tears are forming at the edges of the hero's eyes. The medic snaps his attention away from the water and back to the shattered bones of the broken man.


End file.
